In 1984, the Alcohol Research Group conducted the first national survey on drinking patterns and problems of the Black (N=1946) and Hispanic (N=1454) population in the U.S. This proposal seeks funding to conduct a second national survey of these two groups in 1994. About 1500 interviews (75% response rate) will be conducted in each ethnic group. Respondents will constitute a national probability sample of Blacks and Hispanics. This survey, as the one in 1984, will be conducted together with a national survey of the U.S. population (N=2000) planned for that same year and already funded under the National Alcohol Research Center grant at the Alcohol Research Group, thus achieving reductions in personnel and fieldwork costs of about $400,000. One of the aims of the 1994 survey is to allow for trends analysis in drinking patterns, problems, attitudes toward drinking and drunkenness in a comparative frame among Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. This will be the first time trends analysis will be conducted on alcohol-related data on representative national samples of Blacks and Hispanics. Such analyses are specially important now that trends suggesting a decrease in alcohol consumption have been detected among Whites but not among Blacks and Hispanics. New cross-sectional analyses on alcohol expectancies, attitudes toward drinking, reasons for drinking and recognition and views on alcohol policies in minority communities will also be conducted. These analyses are aimed at covering several important gaps in the alcohol literature with Blacks and Hispanics, as follows: a) description and testing of the factor structure of alcohol expectancy, attitudes toward drinking and reasons for drinking; b) assessment of the relationship between expectancies, attitudes and reasons for drinking and drinking patterns; and c) support for alcohol control policies and factors that underlie it. Taken together, these trends and cross-sectional analyses will provide a major contribution to the study of alcohol problems among Blacks and Hispanics. Results will assess present levels of drinking and problems, as well as the sociocultural environment surrounding alcohol use behavior among Blacks and Hispanics. The knowledge generated by these findings will have a direct impact on the development and implementation of prevention strategies to minimize heavy drinking and alcohol problems among these two ethnic groups in the U.S.